The Tough Task of Farm Transition

Beth Hoffman, Author – Bet the Farm: We started having that conversation, having the conversation with Leroy, about how that transition might actually work. Because as many of your listeners know, it's a very difficult thing as you know, very difficult thing to transition the farm and figure out how is the next generation going to be there. When all of the value of the farm is in the farm? There is no 401K sitting there waiting for Leroy to go play golf in Florida. We have to actually we have a lease with him so that he can afford to live comfortably in his golden years.

Paul Yeager: Transition is one thing - transition to something non-traditional, or what he was used to was a whole another. Do you think that the biggest friction at first was that it wasn't the transition? It was the transition to what you and John had in your mind?

Beth Hoffman, Author – Bet the Farm:  Well, I think it's both, you know, because that handing over power, and, and being in a position where you've been in control of something, whatever it is, for 50 years, and all of a sudden, you're going to take a back seat is very scary, I think, you know, but to anybody. But yes, us doing something different. And especially me, never having been living on a farm having a good job somewhere else was this actually going to even happen? Let alone like what we were proposing to actually do. So, you know, I talked about in the book where the I started, he started asking us about what we were going to do. And I said I don't you know organics and you know, some some very innocent things like organics and food grade grains, and he went out and got this hole that had been left, you know, it was like maybe an inch was left on it. And he said, “This is what organics is, you know, do you understand? Do you want to be laboring battling weeds every day of your life?” And yeah, I was taken back. Because did I really want to be battling weeds every day of my life? You know, that was not something I probably actually wanted to do. But of course, that's not what organics really is anymore.

Paul Yeager Right? And then but again, it's that transitional Yeah, I'm sorry, generational view of a topic and the way someone comes from, this is the way I've done it. Yes. And I think this is what you're talking about. But in reality, we're somewhere in between? Yeah, I want to go back to the transition part, because we're coming into the holidays. And I And I've had this, we've had past episodes, where we've talked about having that conversation about the transition, is the holidays a good time to So mom, when you think you're gonna leave the farm or Dad, you're done. Yeah. I mean, how do you how did you approach it? And how would you do it differently? Now?

Beth Hoffman, Author – Bet the Farm: It's a very difficult conversation. And I think part of the problem is, is that nobody is that clear about what the legacy where they talk about that a lot in transition, you know, when you go to a workshop, let's say, and you're like, let's get the legacy, what you want this farm to be down. And I think particularly when it's been a commodity growing farm, you you function in such a year to year fashion. First off, and second of all, like you haven't built a brand or something the farm isn't an entity that is worth value, or has a vision outside of like its corn pseudo suitability rating for the land. And so there is no vision, there is no like, what do we want in 10 years versus, you know, like, let alone 100 years from now. And I think that that is really where a family, you could have that conversation on just like, you know, in 100 years from now, what would we want this to look like? And just having people, you know, discuss it in a way that's maybe not like, are you done, I'm going to code? Are we ready to switch hands? Now? I'm ready to take over. But what do we all want this to be? And maybe there's not, then at least you know, is there consensus in this group of people? Is there are we have we never even thought about it? Is it? Where are we on completely different pages, because that's important to know where you're starting.

Paul Yeager: And you're bridging gaps of people who are on and off the farm out of the city out of the state, maybe in some cases out of the country. But everybody's entitled to the same share. So sometimes you have to have coalition before you can go to the patriarch or matriarch of the family. Yeah,

Beth Hoffman, Author – Bet the Farm: I mean, I heard a story in my reporting time, like covered transition a bit. And there was a story about a guy who was 65, who had worked on the farm with his dad for 40 years or something at that point. The parents passed away and all the other siblings wanted to sell the farm and he was just out I have a job at 65 years old because he was the only one who wanted to keep the farming couldn't afford to buy it for market rate. So, yes, you have to build, you have to build some kind of consensus, but also I think it's important to be questioning, like a lot of families just want to hold on to the land, period full stop, like we just want the farm. Why do we want the farm? Like what is that, you know, could you keep two acres and have a cabin and be able to go out there and have memories about what that was like and then allow the land to transition to somebody who wants to be on it and farm it and care for it? Because in this state in Iowa, we have more than 50% of the land is now rented out most of that one year leases. Why is the person who's renting the land gonna care about how much fertilizer roads off of the land or how much chemical you know input is affecting the bird life on your on the farm? It's just they don't you know, if you really care about the land, maybe keeping it is not the best thing for it.

Paul: Hoffman continues the discussion about the commodity treadmill, taking a new path in agriculture and the experiences with government bureaucracy. The full discussion will be released Tuesday as part of the MtoM podcast. 

Contact: paul.yeager@iowapbs.org